


Two Soldiers and a Red Ledger

by AvengTris



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a little ooc, bff, friends - Freeform, i don't know what is going on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 02:34:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1328686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvengTris/pseuds/AvengTris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winter Soldier wanted to kill Steve, until he saw Natasha and both disappeared.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Soldiers and a Red Ledger

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on that scene where Steve and Bucky are fighting with the knife. My theory is that Steve doesn't know who the Winter Soldier is, and neither does Natasha. She knows his name is Bucky but she doesn't know that was Steve's best friend. Also, I love the friendship between Steve and Nat.

"Nat?" Steve Rogers asked, he held his gun in front of him. There was barely any light to illuminate his way, but Steve didn't care. He was worried about Natasha. It had been an hour since he had seen her running faster than a 5'2 woman in heels should run with the Winter Soldier chasing after her. Steve still didn't know what exactly about Natasha had caused the Soldier to abandon his fight with Steve in order to chase after her.   
        He had called in a favor with Phil Coulson - on the advice of Fury since apparently Coulson was not only  _alive, but_  had his own team and plane - because he had a technical analyst who was extremely talented. She had tracked Natasha up to an abandoned building where her signal suddenly went dark. Steve had followed the trail, first examining the perimeter to make sure that he wasn't missing anything. Silence and darkness greeted him instead. That was when he entered the house, but on the first floor, he found nothing except some bullet holes in the wall and shattered cabinets. Evidence from a fight.  
        Steve headed to the second floor, where he found a puddle of blood. That was when he called Natasha's name. There wasn't any noise except for the creaking of the floorboards under his feet and Steve was worried. He had fought against the Winter Soldier and knew how strong and fiercely determined he was to kill. But not even Steve had received a look of such undeniable hatred as Natasha had from the assassin's eyes.  
        "Nat?" he called again. There was a buzzing in his ear, the earwig alerting him that someone was trying to make contact. But Steve ignored it, he wouldn't confirm Natasha's demise until he was sure.  
        He checked an empty bedroom, seeing nothing he continued on. That was when he heard the sound of someone trying to cover up sniffling. Steve hesitated, his grip on his gun tightening. Natasha never cried. Steve slowly crept into the next bedroom where the muted sniffling was more apparent. There was a street lamp right next to the bedroom window, illuminating the room. Natasha's fiery red hair was a beacon, catching the little light. Steve looked around, but didn't see any sign of the Winter Soldier. He holstered his gun and went over to Natasha, kneeling down to be on level with her. She was curled up as though trying to protect herself - or more likely - trying to restrain her body from shaking as sobs wracked through.  
        The right side of her face was covered in blood, mingling with the salty tears that fell from her eyes. She was a shell of the Natasha that Steve knew, and it was then that he saw just how young she was. Not young in years, but young mentally. She was still that teenager that had been trained and tortured in the Red Room. Steve waited until she shifted, changing her position. Her green eyes met his, giving him permission to ask questions. 

          He decided to ask a question that didn't hold so much baggage, "What are your injuries?"

          "Three cracked ribs, grazed shoulder from that bastard shooting at me and a graze on my forehead," Natasha said listlessly. 

          "Where'd he go?" Steve asked. 

          "Out the window," there's more to that story with the way she said it. At Steve's look, she sighed, "He had me. The barrel was right against my skin in between my eyes. Yet he chose not to shoot."

          That was an interesting fact to say the least, "Why didn't he shoot?"

           "We have a history," she said shortly. 

          "Nat."

          "What?"

          "Natasha."

           She swore loudly in Russian before meeting his eyes, "He trained me. Back in Russia, he broke me in, taught me everything I know. Well, almost everything. I haven't seen him in years, last I heard he had been put on ice."

          "Put on ice?"

          "He has some serum similar to yours and keeping him on ice puts him in this like, coma and when they need him, they wake him up," Natasha explained. 

          "Why would they put him on ice, why not let him just be awake?" Steve wondered. 

          "The Soviets have a certain way of training their assassins. One of those ways is brainwashing the assassin so he has no memory of his past, no empathy. Only the desire to follow orders and kill. But sometimes, Winter Soldier fights through and starts to remember his past," Natasha shrugged. "He's too good to kill, so they ice him."

         Steve watched her closely. For a year now, since New York, Fury had paired them together for missions. Clint Barton was deep under cover on the west coast somewhere. Steve was almost glad, as he admired and respected Natasha greatly. She had a warrior's soul, and despite her dark past which Steve still didn't know completely about, she still fought for the greater good. Plus, Natasha had a knack for finding trouble. Though Steve didn't know if that was such a great thing sometimes. 

          But she trusted him, something Steve knew was hard for her. Their mutual respect had grown into a deep bond of friendship. The experiences they had gone through bringing them even closer together. He had learned how to read her emotions, much as she had learned to read his. There was something that she was leaving out. Something that she was ashamed of. It was the reason for her tears, she had been shot and stabbed and torture enough not to care too much about pain. But emotional pain was something she carefully avoided and the Winter Soldier had hit her where it hurt the most. Steve waited patiently for her explanation.

          "We were together," Natasha stated, her voice quivering. "We were assigned as partners and as time passed, we had a relationship. At first it was only sex, but it grew into something more. That was when Winter had the idea for us to leave. To leave and live normal lives. Together." Natasha closed her eyes, a muscle jumping in her jaw. "I loved him, and I wanted what he did, but at the time, I had complete faith in our cause. So I reported him. I took him down and brought him in, where they put him on ice. I can still remember t-the look in his eyes."

            Steve didn't say anything, Natasha didn't want to be comforted with words. They were meaningless to her. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and held her. Natasha resisted at first before allowing him to hold her. Steve remembered Loki's words, "Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red". He had thought it was just Loki being Loki at the time, but the more he learned about Natasha, the more he realized that the crazy god was right. But it didn't scare him... okay; maybe it did a little bit. But he wouldn't abandon her. She was trying to clean it, trying to wipe out the red and Steve would be there to help her. 

          What were friends for?


End file.
